Happy Holidays

A film by Scandar Copti. In Arabic and Hebrew with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

A midd­le-class Palestinian fami­ly in Haifa sees life spi­ral out of con­trol under the oppres­si­ve rea­li­ty of con­tem­po­ra­ry Israeli society.

The daugh­ter, Fifi, is stu­dy­ing in Jerusalem and gets into a car acci­dent; the son, Toufic, is invol­ved in secret roman­tic liai­sons and must con­t­end with an unwan­ted pregnan­cy; and the father is embroi­led in what could amount to insu­rance fraud. 

Oscar nomi­nee Scandar Copti (Ajami, 2009) pres­ents a grip­ping fami­ly dra­ma as his second fea­ture film. Led by an ensem­ble of non-pro­fes­sio­nal actors, it inter­wea­ves the sto­ries of mul­ti­ple cha­rac­ters who­se fates are unde­ni­ably – and res­entful­ly – inter­lin­ked. The cha­rac­ters in this mas­terful­ly writ­ten screen­play, groun­ded in inti­ma­te por­tra­yals of moral rela­ti­vism, walk a fine line bet­ween con­ce­ding to and resis­ting the sta­tus quo of Israeli sta­te vio­lence. The film pre­mie­red at the Venice Film Festival in 2024 and won the Horizons Award for Best Screenplay.

Credits:

PS/DE/FR/IT/QT 2025, 123 Min., Arabisch, Hebräisch OmU
Regie & Schnitt: Scandar Copti
Kamera:
Tim Kuhn
mit: Manar Shehab, Wafaa Aoun, Meirav Memorsky, Toufic Danial

Trailer:
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